Strong action a necessity

For some, the move is an admittance of the Government’s failure to conceptualise meaningful strategies to tackle the phenomenon which had been plaguing the country for more than a decade. Others, cognisant of the PP’s promise ahead of the May 24, 2010 general election, that they would have dealt aggressively with the crime menace once elected, described the state of emergency as a “panic response” to a critical issue.

The Government, though, regards it as a robust measure to stem the wave of crime and violence in the interim.

“We are of the view that this situation has reached proportions that we must respond in a most definitive manner possible,” Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar stressed during a hastily-organised news conference at her home in Phillipine, San Fernando, last Sunday, to announce that a state of emergency — the fifth in the nation’s history — had been instituted in targeted crime-plagued communities for a period of 15 days in the first instance.

“There comes a time in the history of a nation when we have to take very strong action, very decisive action. The situation cannot continue like this without a response that is commensurate with the wanton acts of violence and lawlessness.”

Persad-Bissessar, during the briefing, also implored the nation to have patience, insisting the war on crime will be won.

“We have the will. We will succeed. The nation must not be held to ransom by groups of thugs bent on creating havoc in our society,” she emphasised.

At a subsequent news conference, Attorney General Anand Ramlogan also underscored the crucial need for the measure at this time.

“The time has come for action,” he told reporters at the Ministry of National Security headquarters at Temple Court, Port-of-Spain, last Monday.

“The war is on. We have declared a state of war against the bandits and criminals. We will not stop until we win,” he added.

President George Maxwell Richards, under the powers vested in him by the Constitution, also informed Speaker of the House of Representatives Wade Mark of the reasons for his declaration of a state of emergency.

“The present unprecedented escalation in murders and other serious acts of violence and lawlessness warrants the adoption of more decisive and stronger action to ensure the safety of the public,” Richards said in his statement to Mark.

“There is urgent need to address this threat to public safety and the upsurge in violent crime in the shortest possible time.”

The President’s statement is to be debated at a sitting of the Parliament at the Red House in Port-of-Spain at 10am on Friday.

Still, questions have arisen as to what specifically triggered the action this time around, especially in light of recent reports that the Government was not initially considering the measure.

Already, the Government has claimed success from the action, saying they have made some breakthroughs with respect to drug-trafficking rings, gangs and gun confiscation.

However, the move is being viewed with suspicion by the Opposition PNM, which felt that the recent upsurge in crime could have been dealt with through already-proclaimed anti-gang legislation. The trade union movement, too, has questioned the timing of the action.

As the state of emergency enters its second week today, political analyst Derek Ramsamooj reasoned last Friday that the Government would have had a clear rationale for its decision to institute a state of emergency.

He said: “One would expect that, during this period, a number of alleged or possible offenders would be aggressively pursued and more importantly, be put into the justice system so as to deal with whatever allegations.”

Ramsamooj recalled that crime was one of the major platforms on which the PP campaigned, adding it is “paramount that the leadership of the Government make every effort within the Constitution so as to make our communities safe”.

To this end, he said one would expect that financiers of the drug trade will be apprehended.

“Not only must criminality in the hotpots be apprehended, but participants of criminality in the gated communities must also be apprehended,” he insisted.

“For too long our country has been plagued by white-collar criminality, by money-laundering and by financiers of the drug trade. Of equal importance, too, would be the importers of illegal arms and ammunition.

“For the Government to justify its call for a state of emergency, one would expect that all persons apprehended during the limited state of emergency be tried in the judicial system, that the necessary paper work will permit and secure convictions and that alleged and convicted criminals will not get off on legal technicalities.”

Ramsamooj told Sunday Newsday the country will support any act by Government which sought to make communities safer and did not infringe on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. He noted, though, that there were perhaps a number of substantive issues relating to the state of emergency which the public has yet to be made aware of.

“That goes beyond criminal conviction. Remember, a state of emergency suggests that there may have been a direct threat to the stability of the state,” Ramsamooj said.

Prominent Seventh-Day Adventist pastor, Clive Dottin, said he accepted the state of emergency in the spirit in which it was intended.

In an interview on Thursday, Dottin speculated that the state of emergency was prompted by the overall increase in crime and violence, particularly with respect to what he referred to as “cluster killings.”

“We seem to be reaching the point of no return,” said Dottin, a former member of the Police Service Commission (PSC).

He said the fact that a number of gangsters had also violently attacked police officers and security guards may have also led to the decision. However, the outspoken pastor wondered about the plans that will be implemented if the initial phase of the state of emergency did not yield the desired results.

Reiterating that the fight against crime must be multi-dimensional, Dottin called for the establishment of a National Economic Development Task Force to better address the crisis.

“I believe that no one political party in this country and no one class will be able to effectively respond to the problems in the society,” he said.

“I think we have to understand that the complexity of crime and corruption — those two Cs that the Government campaigned on — requires every political party to be involved in every sector.”

The task force, Dottin said, must look at “genuine” Police Service reform.

“We have too many accusations of corruption in the Police Service,” he said.

“In fact, some people have expressed concern about rogue cops who are supposed to keep the peace (during the state of emergency) and the possibility they could undermine the process.”

Dottin said the task force also needed to review legal and judicial reforms in the society, especially within the prisons service.

“I heard the Attorney General saying that they making room in the prisons (for those who break curfew). I wonder where that room will come from?” he asked.

“If you have to lock up 100 people, where are you going to put those individuals in an absolutely overcrowded prisons system?”

Dottin also took a jab at the intelligence-gathering system within the protective services.

“Whenever a man gets killed, you hear he was a drug man or a gun man. But the question is what is the present quality and state of our intelligence-gathering systems?” he asked.

“You have guys in the country who pushing drugs for 20 and 50 years and everybody in the community could tell you that. Only after they die do you get a report that he was a gangster. But if you were aware of all these things before, why are those groups walking free? Those are significant questions we have to answer.”

Dottin told Sunday Newsday that attempts must also be made to bring the “untouchables” to justice.

He said: “I have made clarion calls on this over and over and I am shocked to hear there are a number of people making the same statement now.”

Referring to the 19-year-old man who was held recently with some $21 million worth of cocaine at Piarco, Dottin argued: “There must be people behind him.”

He added: “We have got to find a way to network in the society so that the untouchables can begin to feel unsafe, because clearly this drug trade is a billion-dollar business and no boy behind Laventille bridge will be able to generate that kind of funding.”

Compounding the problem, Dottin observed, was the total breakdown in the moral and spiritual fibre of the society through the disintegration of the extended family and absentee fathers. He claimed criminal gangs were wreaking havoc in several secondary schools along the East-West Corridor.

“Principals are dumbfounded. We have gambling gangs, drug gangs, a type of prostitution/gang scenario. I am saying that all these things have to be addressed,” the pastor said.

Dottin said while he sees the state of emergency as a short-term plan to bring some measure of stability in the society, he was concerned about an overall crime plan “with a consistent sequence”.

Former PSC chairman, Senior Counsel Kenneth Lalla, fed-up of the crime scourge, also supported the state of emergency, but suggested that a more long term solution be conceptualised and implemented.

He said: “Crime has been increasing so phenomenally that it has gone beyond the control of both the police and politicians. The Government has had to resort to the declaration in the hope of halting a further escalation.”

However, Lalla, in a brief interview on Thursday, argued that a state of emergency should never be perceived as the panacea for eliminating the menace.

“The question for consideration is not so much the state of emergency, but the signing of an enduring solution to crime,” he said, contending that such a solution will pose a formidable challenge in light of the growing social disorder and decadence in the society.

“The declaration of a state of emergency, harsh though it may be, will perhaps be the last solution to which any Government may want to resort in the control of crime.”

Lalla believes that “some type of urgency” propelled the Government to embark upon this particular decision.

Another Senior Counsel, Israel Khan, also endorsed the state of emergency.

“I support the state of emergency because crime is totally out of control and I don’t know if even this will stem the tide of murders,” he told Sunday Newsday.

“Whatever method the Government wishes to use, once it is within the Constitution, I will support it. I hope it works.”

Khan, who has publicly condemned the murder rate in the country over the years, dismissed reports that the state of emergency may not have been properly fleshed-out and was seriously inconveniencing the lives of civilians

“It is a state of emergency. It will flesh out eventually,” said Khan, a respected criminal attorney. “Those who get tied up for whatever reasons, lock them up because it is a state of emergency and you have to order your business in such a manner, and if you really have extenuating circumstances and you could not make it (the curfew), give an explanation to the magistrate and they will accept it.”

Khan is maintaining a wait-and-see approach with respect to the outcome of the action.

While lauding the Government’s decision to implement the measure to address spiralling crime, president of the Sangre Grande Chamber of Commerce Kenneth Budhu, suggested that a state of emergency should have been the last course of action.

“My feeling is that it is a kind of cop-out, like we are despairing and don’t know what to do,” he said.

Budhu wondered if the Government had truly explored all its options in the fight against crime.

“When they came into power they talked about tackling gangs. Have they done that in a meaningful way?” he asked in a telephone interview last Friday. “They talked about one of the biggest problems being the amount of illegal firearms. Have they gone out to try to rid the place of firearms?”

Budhu added: “They talked about the judicial system, which was in a mess, with cases going on for ten and 20 years and people going on bail 25 times. What progress have they made in the 15 months they have been in power?

“If the Government can convince me that they have really tried their best in all those areas that they talked about, in collaboration with the labour movement and the business sector and the Opposition parties getting together and talking about it, I would say ‘yes’ I support the state of emergency.”

Personally, Budhu said he believed the Government has not tackled crime as aggressively as they should have. Pointing to the effects of the action on the economy, he predicted there will be come unemployment.

“Look at the number of businesses that will have to close down. People have to close at six and seven o’clock to give their workers time to go home,” he said.

Budhu also said the situation will not augur well for investor confidence.

“What is the outside world thinking about Trinidad?” he asked.

“Flights are being cancelled and the Tobago tourist sector is also in jeopardy.”

Should the Government fail to get the desired outcome to the state of emergency, Budhu wondered about its other plans to accelerate the fight against the criminal element thereafter. He also called on them to provide details about the gauge being implemented to measure the success of the initiative.